George Lawlor Blasts Dereliction, Calls for Compulsory Sales Orders

Thank you, Minister, the scourge of dereliction at the time of a housing crisis is, as you've said, antisocial at best and a scandal, and I know much of the problems that we face today predate your tenure as Housing Minister, but in my experience, and I've served on Wexford County Council with you, in my experience, councils are afraid of their lives to go anywhere near derelict sites. Every time we bring proposals about remediating a particular property or doing something with a derelict site, there always seems to be a problem, there always seems to be a difficulty, there always seems to be some stumbling block that a council cannot get over. I think one of the things you need to do in your department is surround yourself with problem solvers, because in my experience over the years, there are too many problem finders within sectors of our, all across sectors of our government, be it local or national. I'll give you an example of a site on Clenard Road in Wexford, you'll be familiar with the area. A derelict site notice was put up the 10th of February 2025, I just text the person who, who brought it to my attention there five minutes ago, nothing has been done, nothing. But I draw it back again to a belief that the councils are afraid to engage in any way, shape or form in resolving the problem of dereliction. And do you know, in many respects, when you look at some of the state agencies, it's no wonder people leave properties derelict. Again, another property that you will be familiar with, Wexford General Hospital, one of the worst derelict sites in County Wexford. The HSE, as you know, have sat idly by and let a wonderful property that has a history to it go completely derelict, so much so that it's now on the abandoned Ireland website. And no intervention, no intervention whatsoever, by years of government. Don't ask me why, because it's a complete eyesore rotting in the heart of Wexford town. What you can do with it now, I don't know. The preservation, there's a preservation order on it, that has served nothing but to probably make it derelict, because the HSE weren't going to spend the money, the extra money you need on a preserved building. Let me give you an example of some of the stumbling blocks I'm talking about. I submitted a question to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform on the 19th of March last year, in relation to hookless village in Wexford. A completely derelict leisure centre, bar, swimming pool, completely derelict. You've probably seen photographs of it. And I asked if anything could be done. The response that I got was, part of the response I got was, the company that owned it has been dissolved since the 19th of October 2007, and can be restored to the company's registers up to 20 years after that date. If restored, any property it held will revert to the company as if it had never been dissolved. So here we have a situation in law where a derelict site that belonged to a company that belonged to a company that was dissolved in 2007, can actually lie derelict for 20 years for fear that the company may be reinvigorated somehow, and can then revert back to the ownership. That is absolutely ludicrous. We have to enforce by law legislation that this building has introduced, or this chamber has introduced, that will allow a property like that to lie derelict, a dangerous property that children are breaking into, a swimming pool full of stagnant water and chairs and tables and space invading machines. And we can facilitate that by allowing the property to sit there for 20 years just in case the now defunct business comes back into being ludicrous, indefensible. As I said, local authorities are afraid of their lives of derelict properties. I am a bit disappointed to hear that, more than a bit disappointed to hear that it will be 2027 before the derelict property tax comes into place. Because what we need is immediate action. Flag Yolne Hearn, as you know, came to Wexford Town, and I was involved in the Flag Executives Committee, and there was a number of derelict buildings along Wexford's main street. And Anthony Bailey, our manager, looked at these at the time and said, well, we can't have 800,000 people coming to Wexford. So we CPO'd a number of the buildings, and they're now in ownership. But we CPO'd them because our town centre needed to look its best as the world descended on it, the nation and the world descended on it. And it was action, action by a proactive member of Wexford Locals Authority that brought this about. As I say, we need to get the problem solvers into the system. We also, and I agree with Deputy Hearn, we need the compulsory sales order. It's a no-brainer. We cannot continue with the whole notion of CPOs. We need to inflict, and I use the word inflict, compulsory sales orders on these blights and eyesores on our community. It's not just about the housing problem, which of course is a huge and extremely important issue. And I know that's the thrust of Deputy Gould's bringing forward this bill. But it's only one part of it. And if we are sending out the singles through our authorities, that you can have a derelict hospital, and you can have a derelict private company that can be left there for 20 years. What are the other guys thinking that own these derelict sites? What are they saying? So why should I get rid of my derelict site if that's lying there? We need to really go hard in every sector to send out the signal to every sector that dereliction and blights on our landscape and blights on our housing lists by people who are walking by derelict houses every day of the week. We need to send the signal that we're not going to take it anymore. And I do hope, and I know you've received some criticism here today, but I've known you for a long time, I do hope that you move, you be the minister to move to ensure that these blights on our housing lists and these blights on our communities are removed once and for all, so that we can stand in this chamber and say, look, we're achieving something for the betterment of the people of this nation and this nation itself. Thank you very much.